~ POTTERS an COLUMBIA a Ideas for a more earth-friendly studio From the Oregon Potters’ Association (OPA) Newsletter, June-July 2010 SCRAP GLAZE, LESS GLAZE WASTE DOWN THE DRAIN Submitted by Laurie Childers, OPA member At our Linn-Benton Community College ceramics studio in Corvallis, WA, we have about a dozen 35-gallon buckets of glazes, and another half-dozen five-gallon buckets of trial glazes or less-popular mixes. We are a teaching facility so there is more "changing of the mind” and mistakes that require the glaze to be washed off than in a production studio. Any studio has ladles, pitchers, brushes, and sponges that get glaze on them. To keep the washed glaze from going into the sewer system/river, we got a 12-gallon bucket and marked it "Scrap Glaze.” This is an old idea but somehow we had not been doing it, probably because before we had our new facility we are so cramped for space. We filled it three- quarters full with water and put a note on the lid for people to rinse the glaze from their tools into this bucket—with the exception of Shino glazes. Shino glazes have ash (lye) in them and will not mix with other glazes, but they could have their own scrap glaze bucket. It took about nine months for the first bucket to collect enough material to test. We also used the cleaned-up glaze material from the spray booth. To our surprise and delight, without any additions, the scrap glaze came out a soft iron green when thick and a medium/dark brown when thin. It breaks nicely and gives us a good forest green color we've been wanting. A student named it Loden (a la Land's End Catalogue) and it became very popular. More people became aware of the scrap bucket and now use it every time. The second iteration of scrap glaze collected in less time and came out very similar. We are doing a bit to help the rivers and we also get a free glaze for minimal effort. MIXING GLAZES WITHOUT MAKING TOXIC WASTE Submitted by Janet Buskirk, OPA member A very simple technique I use to keep waste to a minimum when I mix glazes is this: I do not add all of the water to the glaze while I am initially mixing it. Then, J clean all of my glaze-mixing tools (whisk, screen, scoops, etc) with a small amount of water and add that www.geeenbarn.com 9548 192 Street, Surrey, B.C. VAN 3R9 Phone: 604.888.3411 Fax: 604.888.4247 ean Darn POTTERS SUPPLY LTD. Tuesday-Friday 9-5 Saturday 9-1 Closed Long Weekends greenbam@telus.net water to the glaze. Everything ends up clean, and no glaze materials go down the drain. MIRROR BLACK GLAZE: This is a beautiful glaze that I make from my scrap glaze bucket. I use cone 10 glazes, but this or something similar might work at other temperatures. My typical scrap glaze, before adding colorants, is a translucent brown or dark green. 1 liquid quart of scrap glaze 20 g cobalt carbonate 6g chrome ox 20g red iron ox MATTE BLUE GLAZE: This is a dark, stony matte. I make it from a combination of my scrap glaze, Waxy Matte glaze, and cobalt carbonate. I fire it to cone 10, First, mix Waxy Matte (cone 10): Custer Feldspar 41 Silica 20 Dolomite 7 Gerstley Borate* 12 EPK 5 Tale 15 Add: Cobalt carbonate 1 * T use Laguna Borate instead of Gerstley Borate Mix the Waxy Matte with the appropriate amount of water. Then, mix five parts of the Waxy Matte with eight parts Scrap glaze. For me, this makes a nice stony blue. You may need to add a bit more cobalt or adjust the ratio of Waxy Matte to scrap glaze. For more information on the Oregon Potters Association, see: www.oregonpotters.org “Pottery STORE Featured Guest Artist ELLEN STATZ Fabulous Raku Pottery August 15 = October 15 Opening Reception Thursday, September 9 4-8pm Refreshments Bovwor Princes 9745 Willow Street, Chemainus, BC www. ThePotteryStore.ca — 250-246-2594 Potters Guild of BC Newsletter - September 2010 7